Measuring Our Impact
Negotiation Works and our dedicated data analysis team regularly collect information and feedback about the classes we teach through surveys and follow up interviews and then analyze and report on what we’ve found. This data not only explains what we do and what our participants retain but also helps us adapt the coursework to better serve our students.
The following offers an overview of our research methodology. To help us understand the areas in which participants find negotiation and self-advocacy most useful, we ask our class members each week to share recent situations in which they used negotiation strategies. We also assess whether over the duration of the class, participants become more comfortable and confident in using negotiation strategies to manage disputes, rather than avoiding conflicts altogether or escalating them. Additionally, to evaluate whether taking part in our classes results in people modifying their “go-to” approach when facing conflict situations, we ask participants, both before and after the course, to describe how they would deal with two difficult situations, one involving a landlord-tenant dispute and another involving a family conflict. To assess long-term impact, we reach out to participants six months or more after they complete the course to explore how they have used negotiation strategies over time to accomplish their financial, employment, family, health, and housing goals.
Approximately every six months, our volunteer data team, which includes data and statistics experts working full-time in government, private sector, and non-profit settings, takes a snapshot view of this evaluation data to assist us in analyzing our impact. We convert these insights into continuous improvement for our curriculum to be most useful for participants, programs, and communities. More broadly, as we collect more data, we seek to determine how participants’ use of negotiation strategies leads to job retention, eviction prevention, adherence to probation terms, family stability, and financial mobility.
Who Did We Serve in 2025?
Negotiation Works served 258 participants in 17 multi-week courses with our long-term partners. Their ages ranged from 18 to 67, with the highest percentage (63%) falling in the 25-44 year range.
Our Most Recent Data Results
Participants across all the programs we taught throughout 2025 became more confident self-advocates and problem-solvers. 61% of the women and 42% of the men reported post-program increased confidence to self-advocate for their needs. 58% of the women and 40% of the men reported post-program increased confidence in their ability to manage conflicts productively.
Our participants navigate conflicts across many different types of relationships. Based on weekly surveys from the 258 participants in our 2025 courses, those who reported using negotiation strategies used them most frequently in situations involving family members, romantic partners, roommates or housemates, and friends; followed by business and work; and caseworkers and housing. Focusing on interests, listening, and perspective-taking were among the strategies they identified as being most useful in managing these conflicts. They reported achieving positive outcomes in 75% of these situations.
Participants reported a reduction in conflicts after taking the class. 52% of the women across all our programs, 33% of the men in our DC Jail programs, and 26% of the participants in our returning citizen programs reported experiencing less conflict post-course.
IMPACT STORY:
Two Fellows from the Georgetown Pivot Program (an entrepreneurship program from individuals returning to the community after incarceration) engaged in a difficult role play in front of the class. The scenario dealt with a 25-year-old asking his father, who had been incarcerated for fifteen years, for $500 toward the purchase of a used car he needed for a new job. The role play served as a vehicle for the Fellows to practice having tough conversations around family dynamics, and the role players ended up having a (simulated) frank discussion about how each of them felt about the father's incarceration. One of the Fellows who observed the simulation and debriefed with the group offered the following written reflection of what he learned:
“The role-play was relatable because I have experienced something similar in my own life. The negotiation began with both parties acknowledging that the situation was sensitive and that they had a stake in the outcome…Also, the son never once brought up the fact that the father was not there for him at key points of his childhood due to his incarceration, knowing that was a sensitive part of his life. Rather, the son just asked for help in his time of need now. The negotiation was a beneficial example, and I hope that what I have learned can be applied to real life and help mend the relationship with my child due to my long-term incarceration.”
